Mission 6
Links Team * Milno Enedrasi * Gorat "Chin" Ivanos * Travis Stratnin * Mason Kervech * Simulacrus Ferratum-Inanis "Simus" * May * Faith Valentine * Feyri Nirel * Thomas Harrison * Charro Hootzal * Maurice Sanctor Mission Summary The mission is to explore an anomaly, record what they experience, and bring back samples and artifacts if possible. The team drop onto a normal world and meet their guide, An old man named Conrad, who gives them some information and a map with a trail for them to follow to the place he lost one of his brothers long before. The map has several landmarks on it: The entrance in the plains, the dead forest, the pitted lands, the tower, the fall, the graveyard, and the citadel. The Plains The team enter through a portal in the old man's refrigerator, which is vertical in the "normal" world, and horizontal in the other, so that if one enters feet first while laying down, they will arrive on the other side standing up. The nature of light inside is demonstrated - light creates a bubble in the dark, and moves only a short distance. Creatures called shades live in the darkness, and can be seen briefly at the edges of the light before dissolving in the light. Outside of the bubbles, nothing can be seen at all. If two bubbles overlap, light can move through both. Thus a trail of light had been laid down by previous explorers, along with a sturdy rope, in case the light failed. Mason attempts to burn sand with his manip, but creates a ball of hot, which then explodes and knocks people over while breaking several lights. The Dead Forest Razor sharp, fractal patterned, metal trees stand in carefully spaced randomness. the team try various methods of collecting samples of these trees, resulting in several injuries. Disregarding repeated warnings after his previous attempt, Mason fires his manip at one, which heats it but does nothing else. Travis then shoots him with a gun that grows a crystal on Mason's belly. Maurice saves hi life by cutting out much of his innards. Meanwhile, Feyri fires er electrolazer at one, which absorbs, then discharges the electricity back into her, frying and nearly permanently killing her. Other attempts end in severed limbs, but some samples are collected. A few of the party escort Mason and Feyri back to the shuttle to put them in stasis, while the others move on. the escorts rejoin the rest. the Pitted Lands The pits are holes down which sand seems to fall continuously. It is discovered that the sand is either falling slowly out of the sky, or appearing out of thin air. Faith uses her kinamp to punch the ground, which causes a swarm of seven foot long shade-like beetles to erupt out of several of the holes nearby, swarming over part of the party and giving them shallow lacerations and other wounds, while a part of the party escapes by running several hundred yards away. It is discovered that the beetles are attracted to sound, and they swarm off chasing a metal rod thrown by Charro. Travis tosses a few lights down one of the holes, and the beetles are heard following it downward. How far is unknown. The Tower The team explore a ruined circular tower and discover several artifacts, including a set of metal dumbells connected to some mysterious machinery, and a three meter tuning rod made of the same metal as the razor trees. They awaken a puddle of inky liquid by striking the rod against the wall, and Thomas attempts to take a sample of the liquid. this ends badly, as Thomas is possessed by the liquid. Be fore he is fully possessed he "sees" sound, and views it as beautiful. It is discoverewd that this is the eater of light, when it in fact eats the light from one o the many lanterns hung in the central room o the tower. A battle ensues, with the lighteater using the tuning fork to control sand and the sandstone beneath, and the team using what they can to defeat it. Ultimately, the lighteater leaves Thomas voluntarily, creating a skeleton of sorts out of several sandstone objects created by the tuning fork. It then calls the Wyrm - a giant millipede-like creature which carries stone structures hung on it "like saddlebags." the lighteater enters one of the structures through an open doorway (no doors, just openings), ad the Wyrm moves on. Thomas, dying, is escorted back to the shuttle, and the team regroups at the next waypoint: the Fall A model of the tower built by Piecewise himself in Minecraft can be found Here. The Fall The fall is thirty miles high, and is travelled by means of a mining elevator. In spite of the huge potential here for comedy, nothing serious occurs, and the team descends to the land below without incident. Several o the team take rope lights and lanterns from the camp at the base of the cliff for the journey. The Graveyard The graveyard is a series of carefully spaced stones or buildings of unknown origin and purpose. It is called the graveyard for it's similarity in appearance to a human graveyard. As they pass through this area, a sound is heard, and a jar of sand in each of Maurice's and Faith's backpacks shatters. It is discovered through careful observation that the sand in the containers is increasing in number somehow, though generally pretty slowly. the trail of lights laid by previous explorers, such as Conrad and his two brothers, ends at the end of the graveyard area. Milno lays some rope lights and the team moves on, finding the Citadel as described by Conrad. The Citadel Some exploration discovers the Citadel to be round with no ground level entrances, thogh a rope is hanging from above partway around. Several teammates attempt to climb this, and the comedic potential of the Fall comes to fruition as Faith leaps onto a walkway above, colliding with Simus, who had already gone up, and knocking the both of them out the other side. Milno softens their fall, but Simus is concussed and Faith breaks her hand on Milno's codpiece. Comedic potential satisfied, Travis uses the climbing gear the team came with, sets pitons, and successfully climbs onto the walkway. A deep and troubling sound begins to appear intermittently at this point. The rest make their way up, though Maurice has a close encounter with a wall of moving sand as the intermittent sound gains in volume before settling back again. It is discovered that there are five Citadels linked by the walkways, and the citadels are large hollow cylinders with five sets of spiral ramps going up the insides counterclockwise. Each Citadel is made of concentric sets of these cylinders, and inside the inmost is a building much like a fully repaired version of the Tower above. the Citadels surround a central building from which the noise is coming and around which the Wyrm has taken up patrol. inside the first Citadel, the corpse o Conrad's brother is found, and his journal, from which some of this information comes. Several of the team are further injured in the process of this exploration, and all the sand in the area begin flowing away from the strange sound. It so happens that the sand was over a hundred feet deep, and the Citadel did have a ground floor entrance after all. Milno and several others attempt to get to the central building, but the Wyrm ruins that plan, killing Charro and wounding some of the others. Milno examines a wall o razor tree metal around the inner building, but agrees to a hasty retreat, as very few o the team are still whole. The Return The team makes it's way back to the Fall on the now sandless sandstone, only to discover that the elevator is a hundred feet above. Milno succeeds in setting pitons and climbing up to the elevator, and hauls hte rest up as well. Nothing untoward happens, and once out, Faith asks for some lights and a container, and attempts, apparently unsuccessfully, to capture a shade or two. The team then returns to the ship, with one permadead, one tempdead, two surviving in stasis, and the rest mostly battered. Category:Mission